Today Was a Fairy Tale
by LovePrism
Summary: Natalie has moved to America and cut off all relation to her family. She currently babysits a rich girl. Hamilton is a player for the Green Bay Packers. Can a seven year old make them realize what they're hiding? For Iris' Pairings to Die For Contest.


**Hey! I actually finished this at eleven on June 30, and I would have put it up then if the deadline hadn't been extended. **

* * *

><p>Green Bay, Wisconsin. Before the clue hunt, Natalie wouldn't have been caught dead here, but things had changed. She was currently the babysitter for the daughter of an extremely wealthy family. It was a simple job, and it paid very well for just picking the girl up from school, watching her until the parents got home, and watching her on Friday and Saturday nights. No, the job didn't interfere with her love life. Natalie had never fallen in love, and didn't really plan on it. She was scared of turning into her mother when it came to parenting. Her job didn't count as parenting. She was more of just the older sister that the girl had never had, and she enjoyed being an older sister.<p>

All the kids had come out of the school except for Addison, which was weird because she was usually the first to come running out the doors. Natalie was confused, but not worried as she walked into the building and down the hall to classroom 129. Strangely enough, most of the kids were still in the classroom. She knocked, and the teacher came over to let her in. "What's going on in here?" Natalie asked.

"We have one of the Packers here today!"

"The what?"

"Our NFL team." Natalie remained confused. "Football, American football."

"Oh, okay. I think Addison's parents sponsor them."

"Come on in, you can meet him, too."

Natalie walked through the door and there, surrounded by seventeen elementary students, was Hamilton Holt.

"Natalie?"

"Hamilton?"

The classroom suddenly got awkwardly quiet until the silence was broken by one of Addison's friends who sighed dreamily saying, "You _know_ him?"

"Uh…yeah, I do. We're friends. Kind of. Not really."

"Yeah. Pretty much what she said."

Natalie sat at the back of the classroom, watching Hamilton talk to the kids until they slowly were all dragged home by their parents. She couldn't help but notice he had a natural gift with kids. _He would be a great father_…she thought, but then immediately slapped herself mentally. How could she be thinking such thoughts about someone? Especially a…a…she couldn't even bring herself to call him a Dolt. What was this?

"Natalie! Natalie!"

"Hey, Addy! Did you have fun today?"

"Yeah! Hamilton Holt came and he talked to us and…" Addison began her usual high-speed rendition of everything that happened all day. Natalie smiled and tried to listen, but couldn't keep up with the energy of a seven year old girl who had spent the day with her favorite sports star. While Addison was talking, Natalie noticed Hamilton was still in the room, looking up at her occasionally and waiting for her to be done listening.

Addison finally finished, and he walked over, "Hey, Natalie. It's been a while."

"Yeah, quite a while."

"Would you like me to walk you out to your car?"

"Sure. Come on, Addison."

They got to the car and Hamilton turned to Natalie saying, "We need to talk."

She could tell by the look in his eye and the tone of his voice that Addison probably shouldn't be around, so she said, "Hey, Addy, do you wanna go to the playground for a little while so I can talk to Hamilton?"

"Okay!" she agreed innocently as she skipped off.

"Natalie-"

"Hamilton-" Both of them began talking at the same time and then fell into the awkward argument over who really talked first and who got to talk.

"Okay!" Hamilton finally said, "I'll talk first. Natalie, I wanted to see you since the hunt was over, but when I called your house, your brother said that you were permanently unavailable."

"What? I wanted to see you, but for a long time, I couldn't talk to anyone, not even Ian. Then one day I saw that you had called, and I asked him why. Ian told me that you had called because you wanted to know where to find hot British girls who were nothing like me."

"What? That's not true!"

"I know! After that I just got over hiding from everyone and gave up all of my money. I went to normal school, and when I graduated I moved here, to be normal. I want nothing to do with the rest of my family. I don't want to be anything like them."

"I'm sorry, but I understand completely, and is that part of the reason you've lost your accent?"

"Yeah, it is. I want absolutely _nothing_ to do with them."

"Now that we've got the worst of this all over, do you wanna take Addison and get ice cream or something?"

"Yeah. That would be great. Addy! Come on!" Addison came skipping over holding flowers in her hand. "We're going to go get ice cream with Hamilton Holt."

"Yay!" she squealed as she jumped in the back of Natalie's car and buckled her seat belt.

"I'll see you there," Hamilton said as he walked to his car.

* * *

><p>"Natalie, can Hamilton come over tonight and play?"<p>

It was Friday, and Addison's parents had a party of some sort to attend, so Natalie would be staying with her until her parents got home. "Well, I don't know," she said with a glance to him. "Usually it's no boys allowed, but because he plays for the Packers, I think it would be fine. I do get lonely after you fall asleep."

"Yay! Now we have a prince for when we play princesses!"

"Oh, I don't know if he's charming enough to be the prince," Natalie said. "He seems like he's more of the ugly villain."

"Me? The ugly villain? I think that's more of Natalie's job!"

"Natalie's usually the ugly witch when we play!"

"Addy! How can you take his side?"

"It's because I'm so charming."

"Oh, yes, you just charmed your way into coming over tonight, and now I'm regretting it."

"So you'll admit I'm charming."

"Oh! I never said-! Ugh!" Natalie slammed her head down on the table of the ice cream shop.

"Up top," Hamilton said to a giggling Addison. "I've gotta go, but I'll see you tonight, princess. Later, ugly witch."  
>He received a groan in reply.<p>

* * *

><p>"Come on, Natalie, you've been it for an hour now!" Addison shouted.<p>

"It's not my fault that Hamilton's carrying you around and he can run faster than I can!" she said between pants for breath.

Hamilton smirked, "Maybe we should play something that Natalie's good at now, like princesses. It doesn't take much effort for her to be the ugly witch."

"Okay. Fine. As long as I don't have to chase you all around the house while you make fun of my running abilities."

"Yay! I'll get the costumes!" Addison shouted as she ran upstairs to her bedroom. When she came back, she handed Hamilton a cape and prince crown and was wearing a black cloak.

"What are you doing, Addy? I'm the witch. Where are your princess clothes?"

"I want you to be the princess tonight. Your clothes are in my room on my bed."

"Okay," said a confused Natalie as she walked into Addison's room. Lying on her bed was a red silk evening gown, ruby earrings, ruby necklace, and red shoes. "Addison! What is this?" she shouted down the stairs.

"Your princess clothes! They're for you! Mommy didn't want them anymore and she was gonna throw them out so I saved them!"

_Wow…that sounds like something Isabel would do…_ _No! That's something _I _would have done!_ She thought with horror. Natalie pushed the thoughts out of her head as she slipped on the dress, loving the familiar feel of the silk against her skin. She put on the jewelry and shoes and looked in the mirror. _I look just like Isabel, except softer, gentler, more loving. More like a mother than a murderer._ She thought. _No! There's that parenting thought again. I do _not_ want to be a mother._ Natalie straightened her hair and walked down the stairs to where Hamilton and Addison were waiting. As she slowly descended the steps and saw the expression on Hamilton's face, she couldn't help thinking about how cliché it was. "Princess Natalie has arrived," she announced in her British accent, feeling nostalgic.

"Good evening, Princess Natalie," Hamilton said in a British accent of his own, bowing and kissing her hand, "I am Prince Hamilton."

When he kissed her hand, Natalie felt herself smile, even though she was already smiling. This was one of those smiles that you can't get rid of no matter how hard you try, and she wouldn't admit to enjoying it. "What a pleasure to meet you, Prince Hamilton." This Princess Natalie wouldn't be anything like the one that was around twelve years ago. No, this Princess Natalie would be kind and sweet and caring, like the Disney princesses…without all the singing.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine."

"And I am the evil witch who has come to lock the princess up in the tower!" Addison tried to sound evil, but could only do so much to her innocent voice.

"Oh, no! Don't lock me in the tower! Anything but that!" Addison grabbed Natalie's hand and led her outside and made her walk up the spiral staircase to the next floor's balcony. "Oh, Prince Hamilton, come save me before I die up here!"

Natalie then got to spend the next hour watching Addison try to defeat Hamilton's efforts to save her. When throwing things at him failed, she tackled him, and he played along and fell to the ground, which was a mistake because Addison had handcuffs, and he had to chase her around the yard to get them back. As she watched, she realized that she couldn't take her eyes off of him no matter how hard she tried.

"Oh, Princess Natalie, I have finally come to rescue you! I almost died trying…" he said slyly to a giggling Addison who was pretending to be dead in the grass.

"Prince Hamilton, I knew you would come!" she gushed.

"Now let me carry you away to my castle, and make you my wife!" Hamilton picked her up and carried her—princess style, of course—down the spiral staircase and set her down on the couch.

Addison came in carrying her cloak and said, "Yay! Now you two get married!"

Natalie and Hamilton looked at each other awkwardly before Natalie said, "No, it's too late, Addy. Let's get out of these costumes and get you to bed."

"But you look so pretty in your princess dress! And I don't wanna go to bed!"

"If you don't go to bed, I'll take off my princess dress," Natalie warned.

"Okay," Addison shouted as she ran off to brush her teeth.

Hamilton began taking off his costume, but Natalie stopped him, "I don't think so, mister. If I'm stuck as a princess, you're stuck as a prince."

"Aw, come on!" _This is a different Natalie than the one I used to know. The other one would do anything to stay in that dress—but not for longer than a day. Then it would be thrown out, not even given away,_ he thought.

Addison then came running back down the stairs in her pajamas to Natalie, who picked her up and carried her back up the stairs to bed. Hamilton followed, smiling as he noticed Addison's sudden crash. _Natalie would make such a good mother, _he thought. _Wait, was I just thinking of Natalie…as the mother of _my _children? Why would I think _that_?_

"I want Hamilton to say goodnight to me," Addison said sleepily as Natalie set her down in bed.

He walked to the bed and said, "Good night, sweetie," and kissed her on the forehead. Hamilton then walked to the doorway to her bedroom and waited for Natalie.

She bent over and kissed Addison on the forehead as well, saying, "Good night and sweet dreams, Addy."

"Natalie?" asked a barely awake Addison.

"Yes?"

"I think you're a really good princess."

"Thank you."

"And you two won't say so but Hamilton's your prince."

"Oh?"

"Mm-hm. And you're going to get married and live in a castle and…" Addison slowly drifted off to sleep. Natalie walked to where Hamilton was, turned off the light, and closed the door, leaving it open just a crack.

The first thing Natalie did after that was change from the red dress back into the Levi's and t-shirt she had been wearing before. When Hamilton saw her walk out of the bathroom wearing just those clothes, he thought she looked even more stunning than she had before. "So what was she telling you, when you told her good night?"

"Oh, nothing," Natalie blushed and looked away.

"Now I really want to know. What was it? Did she declare her love for me?"

"Not even close," she giggled. "I'm not telling you, and there's no way you can get it out of me."

"Oh, really?" Hamilton said as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her to the floor of the den where he pinned her down and started tickling her.

"Stop!" Natalie squealed, "You'll wake her up!"

"Well, then you had better tell me."

"If you let me up, I will."

"Okay," he agreed. After seeing the expression on Natalie's face and the way she looked at him after what Addison said, he just _had_ to know. And he could only stand to torture Natalie so much.

"Well, she said I was a good princess…" Natalie began.

"…And…?"

"She said that we'll both deny it, but we're perfect together."

"Oh?"

"And that we'll be married and live in a castle."

"Well then, I hope she's right. I've always dreamed of that…"

"Yeah?" Natalie said hopefully.

"Of course. It would be awesome to live in a castle. An awesome palace with servants doing everything for me…"

"I've already had that life, and I wouldn't want to go back," said a sad Natalie who had been hoping he would say he likes her.

"I don't want you to go back either. That Natalie, I liked. This Natalie, I," Hamilton paused. Was he really going to say this? What would she say back? "I love."

"Really? Since I saw you in that classroom, I've been thinking that I feel the same way."

"Well that settles it then. I'll just go online to 'Castles R Us' while you plan the wedding," he joked.

"Really, I don't want a castle. I'd be much happier in a shack."

"You can live in a cardboard box in the alley behind my castle."

She laughed, and the two kept talking late into the night until Addison's parents got home. As Natalie lay in the bed of her apartment, she couldn't help thinking that today was her fairy tale dream-come-true.


End file.
